The Labor of Light Yagami
by The Carnivorous Muffin
Summary: The Death King pays Light a visit after claiming the universe has been eaten by a terrifying being called Rabbit and Light finds that he doesn't appreciate any of it. Lily, for her own part, struggles to define what it is to be a god. Side fic of "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus"
**Author's Note: A warning for those of you about to read. This is a crossover of Death Note with the very AU fanfiction "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus" and if you aren't a decent way into that fic you will have absolutely no idea of what is going on at all. Also, on that note, this is NOT CANON. With that all said, proceed, be warned, and enjoy.**

* * *

When Light Yagami met Lily it was needlessly anticlimactic.

After all, having Ryuk appear in your room, peering out of the shadows with red marble eyes and a grin that stretched wider than the human jaw could allow, anything else failed to be truly intimidating.

And even without comparison to a god of death the girl failed to be truly intimidating. At a glance she looked more or less like any other twelve-year-old English girl. Perhaps she was a bit thin for her age, her hair a shade too bright, her eyes an alarming shade of green, but none of this was truly off putting.

The fact was that she at least appeared solidly human where Ryuk had not.

It would have been much more reassuring, in retrospect, if she hadn't.

Or at the very least, if there had been some sort of feeling of dread associated with her appearance, hair standing on the back of his neck and a pit growing in his stomach at the thought that this was truly his reckoning.

When Ryuk had appeared there had been true terror, that this was it, that the Shinigami had finally come for his soul for daring to use the notebook.

But with Lily there was nothing, just him silently walking into his room, locking the door, taking out the notebook to write in it, and then behind him a high, little girl's, English voice, " _You know, I know this has never happened before, but I just have the weirdest feeling that this isn't a new thing._ "

He whirled and there she was, out of nowhere, a little girl sitting on his bed kicking her legs back and forth and staring at him with raised eyebrows (as if he was the one who shouldn't be there).

" _I mean, I know that the universe is falling apart and because of it inconsistent things happen on an almost daily basis, but I'm pretty sure I've never mysteriously and inexplicably appeared in a studious Asian teenager's room before. I'm pretty sure, at least, except for the nagging feeling that this happens all the time..._ "

Light couldn't feel anything, could barely think, could just stare at this girl who hadn't been there two seconds before but was now rambling on in quick English that he could barely follow. Suddenly, he couldn't help but think, his high scores in English didn't seem all that impressive and against his will he found himself wondering if he shouldn't have applied himself a little harder in class.

The girl seemed completely unperturbed, perhaps a bit confused and annoyed, but there was no fear or anger or any helplessness and she seemed more or less indifferent to Light himself. Instead, she seemed more focused on holding a conversation with herself, where Light was a prop and not actually expected to respond.

All at once her eyes widened and she leaned forward, her knuckles white as she gripped his sheets, " _Unless, of course, this has happened before and… That goddamn Rabbit! I swear to god I will shove my fingers down his perfectly symmetrical throat and force him to hack up everything he's ever thought about swallowing!_ "

It was about that time that Light realized that Ryuk was silent, there was none of that frankly obnoxious and ominous cackling, no baiting, nothing at all. Light slowly turned his head, and instead of that familiar grin, he found instead an expression reminiscent of a five-year-old whose hand had been caught in the cookie jar.

"Oh, wow, boss, I uh… I heard you were on vacation."

Abruptly she stopped ranting, looked over at Ryuk and seemed to decide to accept the situation she found herself in and without even blinking switched into flawless Japanese, "I guess some things really never do change… Although you sort of transformed into a hideously terrifying clown, Frank, not sure if I like the new look."

And that was how Light Yagami began his acquaintanceship with the Death King otherwise known as the god of the Shinigami.

* * *

After having calmed down the girl was more or less agreeable and willing to talk to both him and Ryuk. Whether she was surprised by what Ryuk called her or not was hard to say, she certainly didn't act like what he envisioned in a king of death, but it was also clear that despite her extraordinarily human appearance she was anything but.

Not when reality itself seemed to bend to her slightest whims.

There she was, sitting on his bed, tossing apples appearing out of nowhere to a delighted Ryuk listening as the god of death filled her in on all of the relevant details. Light, for his own part, watched half seething and half calculating what to do with the newest chess piece that had just made its appearance.

"So you want to be god, huh?" She said, her eyebrows raising dubiously, green eyes drifting over him with very blatant dissatisfaction.

"There are many kinds of gods." He responded shortly, hating himself for qualifying it like that, because in his own way Kira was a truer god than Ryuk, a god of death whom nobody worshipped or respected.

Kira's law would be absolute and he would shape the course of humanity into something the world had never seen before.

"I suppose, but I think most gods use their own god like powers to gain control over the heavens and earth rather than leeching power off of someone else." She said and then nodded towards his desk, "The way I see it, it's really your heart attack notebook that's doing all the real work."

"Do you have a problem with it?" That was the true question, after all, because if the girl was mostly indifferent then she could be more or less controlled in the way Ryuk was. If he entertained her, if he made it worth her while to let him keep the notebook, then Kira would not be threatened.

"No, not a problem, per se, I just really don't know how you're going to pull it off." She held up a hand to stop his protests, "But hey, I like ridiculous revolutionary malevolent ambition in a young man, even if it's going further than even Lenin dared."

She paused on that and seemed to consider him more carefully, looking him directly in the eye and daring him to waver before her, but he didn't, he held his ground.

"You know now that I think about it, if Frank turned into a terrifying clown of death after being swallowed by Rabbit that probably makes you a deranged form of Lenin himself…" She trailed off and suddenly grinned, standing up and leaning forward, sticking a hand out towards his, "I've decided, Light Yagami, that I will help in your quest to eradicate the bourgeoisie scum from the earth and transcend into divinity."

He stared at the hand, pale and small, so very unassuming but he did not touch it. Perhaps he should have, humoring her seemed like the safer option, but he was also more than a bit annoyed and not thinking as clearly as he should have been.

"And if I don't want your help?" He asked instead, wondering just how one might go about killing a king of gods.

But if anything this seemed to amuse her, because she tilted her head and smiled softly at him, as if he'd told a rather clever joke, "When have you ever, Lenin?"

She took his hand on her own initiative, holding his for a moment too long, grinning across at him as if he'd just made her day.

"So, how are you planning on starting all of this?"

"I am starting by killing criminals." Light said shortly, his eyes narrowed, and at his words her grin faded and her eyes grew dull.

"Right, I got that bit… Is that it?"

"That's all that's necessary." That was, after all, the beauty of the death note. That he could be so powerful with such ease and change the world with only a pen at his disposal.

For a moment the girl only stared at him, once again unimpressed, sighing and saying, "You know, if it was that easy, I think everyone would be doing it."

"It's not that easy! You have to have the resolve, the drive, and…"

"And omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence which I'm pretty sure you don't actually have. I mean, I'm all for faking it 'til you make it but, Lenin, there's a large difference between faking being a communist revolutionary pureblood leader and faking being god." The girl held out her hands, measuring distance, and then brought them closer together, "Why don't we dream a little smaller, how about becoming emperor of Japan and taking over the government?"

On seeing his murderous expression, she held up her hands in protest adding, "Or not, you know, just a suggestion from your helpful non-Rabbit eaten advisor Lily. Right, so godliness… Well, I think it's been done before, in myths and things so it's probably doable…"

For a moment she mused silently, unconcerned by Light's tight expression and narrowed eyes as well as the rage growing within him at this impudent overpowered girl who he could apparently do nothing about. Of course, give him time and he could do something, she could be either removed or nullified but he would need to think and plan and he couldn't do that if he didn't know anything and if she was right there in front of him.

The Death King, honestly a player that Light had only thought of sparingly from Ryuk's small comments on the Shinigami realm, nothing he'd meant to take truly seriously.

"Alright, I've got it! Don't you worry Lenin; we'll turn you into such an amazingly spectacular god that nobody will ever point out how ridiculous you sound calling yourself the god of the brave new world from your bedroom!" And with a loud crack she'd vanished, leaving Light to turn and glare at Ryuk, waiting for that explanation that he should have had the moment Ryuk had appeared but Ryuk had neglected to tell him.

"… He might not come back, you know, he's been on vacation forever." Was Ryuk's only pathetic excuse.

Needless to say it was well over a week before Ryuk saw an apple again.

* * *

As L declared his war with Lind L. Taylor Light was very tempted to forget about the girl. It'd been a single moment, one that was easily dismissed as the police hunt began, and as the weeks wore on it was clear that L was the greater danger and the girl was not.

Occasionally he'd ask Ryuk for information but it was more an attempt to distract himself from L and Kira than anything else. Little bits of history of the Shinigami realm and the god of gods something that apparently wasn't of use as the girl had yet to reappear even by the time November rolled around.

"I always pictured the Death King as being more like a Shinigami rather than a little Caucasian girl."

"Well, to be fair, last time the guy was around was millions of years ago so it's not like we've gotten a good look at him either." Ryuk said looking for once uncertain and somewhat speculative, "See, the way it is now, the king is more the rules he's left behind than an actual guy you just go up and talk to. So, tricking the king, for example, is just finding a loophole in the rules. There hasn't actually been a king to trick for…"

So even the gods did not know the faces of their own gods, it was oddly poetic, something that appealed to Light's more morbid side.

"Then how did you know it was her?" Light asked, because he wouldn't have, if he had passed her in the street or seen her photograph in some magazine he wouldn't have mistaken her for something akin to a god of death.

"Believe me, Light, you know him when you see him even if he is dressed as a half-sized human."

He thought on that for a moment and true there was something almost magnetic about her, some unseen force of charisma that drew his eye, but it wasn't enough for him to instinctively believe what Ryuk was saying. Even when he'd seen her disappear and appear in thin air, create food out of nothingness, he still had to tell himself what she was.

"And what does the Death King do anyway? What makes him a king?"

But Ryuk had gotten tired of the conversation and just gave him a hapless shrug and muttered something about making up all the rules and with L's shadow looming over him that had been the end of that.

Or at least, until the Death King came to deliver his promise to make Light divine.

It had been in the middle of the Space Land heist, the event that would rid him of his pursuer as well as his comrades throughout the Kanto region, and all had been going according to plan. The bus had been hijacked, the man behind their seat had been lured into their conversation and had even shown his FBI badge, and all that was left was for the hijacker to catch his glimpse of the reaper and make his last mad dash towards the street.

But instead the man saw an altogether different kind of reaper than the one that Light had expected to show him.

"Good morning terrifying rabbit digested Tokyo!" There was a loud crack and at the back of the bus, standing just in front of Ryuk, was the girl grinning and holding out her hands.

And at her appearance there was stupefied blinking, screaming, and even praying but mostly just mass confusion.

Light, staring at her, fell into a shocked rage at the thought that he had somehow miscalculated and yet he had never thought to adjust his plans for this and now it was far too late. Ryuk, after a moment of blinking, began howling with laughter.

"Lenin, Lenin, Lenin I have new exciting developments for your path to divinity that I think you're just really going to love." She bounded over towards him, grinning all the while, looking like an over eager child receiving a gift on her birthday.

Light said nothing, all too aware of the eyes of Raye Penber seated behind him, the man who now would relate this supernatural dancing girl to Light Yagami which L could then use to mark him as Kira.

"I really outdid myself this time. I actually went and researched, and planned, and read a lot of really boring books. I figured this would make up for the fact that you were trapped in my brain for ten years and then only a few weeks after you got out you were swallowed along with the rest of reality by a hungry Rabbit… On second thought it doesn't really make up for it but at least it proves that I have good intentions." She smiled at him, her eyebrows raised, waiting for some response but he just blinked desperately holding onto that façade of determined panic that Raye Penber had come to expect from Light Yagami.

"I'm sorry… I don't… I don't know you but…"

Her eyes flickered away from him to the bus jacker who was practically frothing at the mouth and had his gun pointed at her head while screaming, "Holy shit, Lenin, did you steal a bus with a junkie?"

Before Light could scream that, no, he did not steal the bus with the junkie as he was clearly a hostage in this situation the man shot her in the head. Her eyes glazed, her body became slack, she toppled to the floor with a dull thud.

But then before it could register that this girl, this god, had died right in front of him and he had just sat there doing nothing she was blinking and standing upright as if none of it had happened.

Only the blood stains on her shirt and her look of irritation said otherwise, "…You know, strange as it may sound, getting my head bashed into a chair by Squirrel was still infinitely worse than being shot in the head by a bus stealing junkie."

She spared the hijacker a particularly scathing unamused look, one of contempt and dismissal, the way Light might look at gum stuck to the bottom of his shoes.

With a flick of her hand the gun flew towards her, as it did she pulled out the barrel and inspected the cartridges, when it became clear that there were still a few shots left, she closed it and pulled back the trigger and aimed it at the man, "Now, that wasn't very nice, especially since we don't even really know each other. We should at least start with introductions before we start firing shots. My name is Eleanor Lily Potter, also known as Lily, also known as Wizard Jesus, Death, and the Destroyer of Worlds. Now, who are you supposed to be?"

(And there was his first glimpse at what she truly was, a king of death, her eyes like the green of broken glass and a jagged Shinigami's smile on her lips. A being who, with the twitch of her fingers, could bring everything Light had ever known to ruin.)

Whether by Light's initial instructions or the girl's expression the man turned tail and fled, practically tripping over himself, and getting run over by traffic just as Light himself had written earlier.

Only, it wasn't, because now instead of disappearing as Light had intended there would be questions centered around this new figure who appeared to know him. Now, Raye Penber would not be reassured, would probably continue to tail him and…

"Right, well, anyway back to what we were talking about to begin with." The girl emptied the gun, the bullets clattering to the floor, and then tucked it into her waistband, "The way I see it there are a couple of ways that a human can become a god. One is what you're trying to do, which is to garner people's faith in an idea or cause which you alone represent, and I have to say from what I've seen on television and the papers you're doing a pretty good job. Reality's finicky enough since Rabbit ate it that if enough people believe you're a god then you probably will become one… probably. That's sort of the trouble with your idea, if you die too early or you aren't popular enough it's not going to work out plus the idea itself might become a god and leave you, the human, in the dust."

She gave him a somewhat apologetic look with a shrug but otherwise paid no mind to those now stampeding off the bus, other than stepping tactfully out of the panicked passengers' way, or for that matter to Raye Penber who was now standing, gaping behind them, and attempting to interrupt and probably ask who she was and what she wanted with Light Yagami.

"Another way is if a god chooses to grant you divinity. However, given that the only gods I can seem to find are the decrepit gambling vampires in another dimension I don't think that idea will really work out either. Plus, they'd probably just make you god of the slot machines rather than god of the new world. (Also, I'm still not entirely clear on what this new world is and why it's so different than the old one… But that's a different question for a different time.)"

She then leaned in close to him, the scent of gun smoke and blood causing his head to ring, "Which leaves us the last way and perhaps the best way. The trials. Herekles, in order to obtain immortality and perform penance, completed twelve labors for the king Eurystheus. And that, Light Yagami, with me acting as your king, will be your path to divinity."

She was close enough so that all he could see was her face, her fox's grin and her too green eyes that glowed like a Shinigami's, "So, Lenin, why don't we get started?"

She grabbed him by the collar, her hands small and cold against his skin, and with a great wrenching motion the bus seat disappeared from beneath him and the bus itself disappeared shortly after.

* * *

He was on his hands and knees, staring into the mouth of a cave, behind him he could hear the girl nonchalantly still speaking in that same tone she'd had on the bus, "Alright, so I figured if it worked for Herekles it will work for Lenin and have decided to run on the same theme of fetching things, cleaning things, and killing things."

They were in the middle of the wilderness, in some foreign desert land with no sign of human or animal life, and as far as he could see in the flat unfamiliar landscape only the cave itself was of interest.

And Light felt all of the rage that he had suppressed on the bus boiling over now that he no longer had a show he must put on, he stood slowly, and turned his head towards her knowing that if looks alone could kill then her name would have been written ten thousand times over in the notebook.

And she just kept talking, "Inside the cave you'll find your own version of the Nemean Lion, well the Nemean Rabbit, but it's just as impenetrable and obnoxious to kill as the original… I was apparently in a rabbit slaying mood. Anyway, bring me back its pelt and we'll call this done and be on our merry way."

"You've ruined everything." He felt like he had the moment L had revealed his true ploy with Lind L. Taylor, that hysterical moment after the magician's trick had been revealed, after Kira had been cast into the role of the fool (the murderer).

An almost hysterical bubbling feeling of rage, sardonic amusement, and anticipation of retribution all as he stared at this girl (younger than his sister) who had condemned him to death.

"Hm?" She asked, looking at him with raised eyebrows, as if he needed to explain exactly what she'd done.

"The man sitting behind me was an FBI agent, he gave me his name, and now you've all but confirmed my identity as Kira! Do you have any idea what you've done!"

She cocked her head, giving him that flat contemptable almost pitying look, as if he was the one who had entirely missed the point, "A god, Lenin, would not quiver in his boots at the thought of the FBI."

He'd never had the desire to kill anyone without the notebook before, and it had never been so personal, perhaps if the faceless L had been in the same room as him the moment Light killed Lind L. Taylor… But that had been a flash, there a moment and gone the next, the haze of anger wasn't leaving this time and all he could think of was his hands on her throat squeezing the life out of her and…

And just like that his hands were holding nothing and she was standing a few feet away from him, staring at him, her eyes empty and cold (like his own eyes when he left the pretense of Light Yagami behind).

"You've changed, you know." She commented quietly, watching as his hands dropped to his side, making no move to rub at the bruises now appearing on her neck, "You've lost something, I don't know you anymore."

She turned away from him to look at the cave, her profile somehow ageless in spite of her clear adolescence, her eyes cold and infinite, "But I keep my promises and even when you're this, even when you don't remember me, I'll still honor the memory of what you were. So I'll make you a god, Light, and I'll leave it to you to think on what it really means to be one."

She began walking away, into the desert, her worn tennis shoes leaving soft indents in the sand. Before going too far though she stopped, turned to look at him again, "By the way, Light, you might want to work on that murderous rage of yours. It seems to get in the way of your ability to think."

Without warning, only with that loud crack, she vanished once again leaving Light alone in the wilderness, facing the cave.

For a few hours he sat, waiting for her to return or else for Ryuk to find him, but as the sun made its way through the sky it was apparent that neither was going to happen anytime soon. This left him the option of travelling into the desert or else entering the cave for shelter.

And finding the beast she'd claimed was inside.

The Nemean Lion, from what little Light knew of western Greek philosophy, was a lion whose hide was impenetrable and who instead had to be overpowered and strangled by the hero. The girl had said it was not a lion in there but instead a rabbit, Light couldn't strangle a lion if he had to, but he could strangle a rabbit.

With a wary eye at the empty desert and the bright blue sky he stepped into the mouth of the cave.

* * *

She found him underneath the shadow of the dangling rabbit, hung with Light's shirts to a stalactite. He himself was bleeding and far worse for wear than when he'd started and there was only the thought that he had never imagined that this was remotely possible.

In all his calculations and schemes he never once imagined himself stranded in the desert by a half-mad god lynching rabbits for survival.

She watched the rabbit silently for a few moments, covered in shadows except for the green glow of her eyes, and said in a distracted tone, "You were also supposed to skin it."

It was then, far too late, that it finally sunk in that this girl was nothing like his own sister. The human façade she presented was merely that, a façade, and perhaps it was an extraordinarily clever one but that did not make it real. It did not make her human.

And where he could understand Ryuk, understand his motives, know how to control him and account for him he knew nothing of how to manipulate the Death King. She was like a bolt of lightning, she came, she struck, and she went without any time to spare for his own thoughts or opinions.

In this way perhaps she was a true god, in that nothing mortal seemed to be able to touch her, in that she was beyond the grasp of both death and reality itself.

So Light did what he thought he would never do, he abandoned subtlety, "You called yourself Lily, Death King?"

"I prefer it." She answered shortly, and wasn't it strange that this incomprehensible immortal being seemed put out with him, as if he had the ability to upset her.

"What is it you want, Lily? Entertainment, the return of the notebook, Kira's demise?"

She sat down across from him, so that she was at eye level, and simply stared at him for a few moments and then said, "I want you to be happy."

"You want me to be happy?" He repeated, dully, not quite understanding or believing those words given everything that had happened. Given what she had done to him within twenty-four hours alone.

"It's all I've ever wanted, really, everything was always… It was always what I thought you needed to be happy. A body, a revolution, divinity… I just want you to be happy."

"In only a few hours you have destroyed me. You have all but sold me out to L, you have transported me to a desert where you forced me to strangle a rabbit to find shelter, and now you want me to be happy?" He gave a derisive laugh and while she didn't flinch at the noise something in her seemed to whither at it.

"You said you wanted to be a god, Light."

(Why did her saying it this time, with that sense of finality, make those words seem so much more condemning than they had the first time.)

"Kira is a god! Kira is god of the new world already and does not need your meddling!"

They listened to his echoing voice, the way the words travelled down the cavern into the dark, and then slowly and softly she said, "I am sorry, Lenin, that you've been reduced to this because of my own carelessness."

She stood, rising gracefully, and looked down at him but more than that looked through him as if she was trying to find something within Light rather than Light himself, "I'm going to look for Rabbit next, fix this, and that's about all I can promise. So in the meantime, it'll just be like it never happened to begin with, okay?"

He blinked, the world rearranged itself, and he was sitting on the bus earlier that day listening as the hijacker caught his first sight of Ryuk.

* * *

"So, is she back in the Shinigami realm?" Later that night, with the blue glow of his computer lighting his face, and the sound of his pencil marking out the death for hundreds he found his mind drifting back to the girl and his last glimpse of her solemn features.

"Nah, the old man's probably on vacation again. Kind of weird that he showed up at all, if you ask me." Ryuk spared him a glance, one that was curiously weighted for Ryuk, where Light could practically see the gears of thought spinning in his head.

Ryuk wasn't always an idiot, he played the fool but there were moments where his shrewdness would show through, "Guess it just shows how interesting the game is."

"Oh?" Light asked, "You think she came here for Kira?"

"Don't see anything else worthwhile going on. Humans, really, you've been doing the same old thing for thousands of years."

Living, dying, stealing, murdering, the same old thing that Light now sought to eradicate entirely. Yes, if she had come for anything at all Light couldn't help but imagine she had come for him. Only, she had left just as quickly as she had come, and she had made it clear that whatever task he was to perform he had failed abysmally.

If that was an omen, then it wasn't a kind one.

He turned from his screen to stare out the window at the crescent moon, thinking of gods and the gods that gods themselves worshipped, and wondered why that final look she'd granted him had imprinted itself in his mind.

"Well, then, I suppose I ought to give her a good show."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Or, where nothing actually happens but Light does strangle a bunny. Because things like that happen when you drop Lily into your universe of choice. And that's all I have to say about that. Prompted by the 600th reviewer of "God of the Machine" who asked for a fic where Lily appeared as an SI in the Death Note universe.**

 **Thanks for reading, reviews are much appreciated.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or Harry Potter**


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